Bloomberg: M6 iPad Pro to Add Vapor Chamber

Multiple outlets, citing Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, report Apple will add vapor‑chamber cooling to the next iPad Pro that ships with an M6 chip, likely around spring 2027 on the device’s roughly 18‑month cycle. The change follows the vapor chamber’s introduction on the iPhone 17 Pro and is intended to manage increased heat as tablet SoCs approach laptop‑class performance and to avoid thermal throttling during heavy tasks like gaming, editing and on‑device AI. The current M5 iPad Pro relies on a copper heatsink and has shown thermal limits that can throttle sustained performance. Vapor‑chamber cooling would let Apple keep the iPad Pro fanless and thin while sustaining higher sustained clock speeds and serve as a product differentiator from other iPad models. Reports say the M6 is expected to use a 2nm process for improved efficiency, reinforcing the need for advanced thermal solutions. Apple may later extend similar vapor‑chamber cooling across other product lines.